True North
Jigsaw, Neo @ Fowler’s Live
11:00pm, Thu 2 Mar 2006
Score: 8
I was mightily impressed with Neo in 2004, so I pencilled this one in early. The True North collective is a stack of Northern Territory who’ve traveled down for the Fringe, to get noticed, and widen their audience. There’s a different line-up for every True North show; since they don’t appear to be on the Fringe website anywhere, here they are:
- 26 Feb: Sasha & Leah, Neo, eMDee
- 1 Mar: Timmy Marten, Neo
- 2 Mar: Jigsaw, Neo
- 3 Mar: Neo, Cooperblack
- 5 Mar: Jigsaw, Sasha & Leah, Neo
- 12 Mar: Timmy Marten, Neo
First up tonight were Jigsaw. A tight four-piece with a female bassist (is there a single female bass player who isn’t hot?) and Neo’s Jack Tinapple on vocals, they delivered a punchy twenty minute set; all groove, no filler. Really impressive.
The lads from Neo then came on mid-song to launch into another awesome set. Neo really are great, a fabulous funk-tinged band who got the small crowd dancing (except for the tubby guy with the orange Okanuis… ie, me. Hey, I don’t dance). They trotted out couple of new songs (“Waiting For The Bus Blues” was a belter), and dug back into the archives for a few (“I Just Sleep Here” being the most notable).
The only disappointment was that they didn’t play my fave Neo track, “Wrecking Ball”. It would have segued so well into the break-down tail-end of that “Mojo” song; still, it might have busted up the dancing vibe somewhat.
Overall, two hours of killer and not an ounce of filler. Hurrah!